1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an insulation-displacement connector connecting apparatus and method.
2. Detailed Description of the Related Art
A wiring harness is an electrical wiring system with many wires. The wiring harness is assembled by laying wires on an assembling board and mounting electrical devices and wiring devices on the wires. The wiring devices of the wiring harness are likely to include insulation-displacement connectors.
A large wiring harness typically is made by first producing a plurality of unit wire assemblies called partially bundled circuits. The partially bundled circuits then are connected electrically by an insulation-displacement joint connector in a full bundling process, as shown, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 61-117465.
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of an insulation-displacement joint connector 20 that can be connected by an apparatus according to the present invention. The insulation-displacement joint connector 20 has a resin cover 21, a housing 22, and an insulation-displacement terminal 23 made of an electrically conductive material. The cover 21 has a U-shaped lateral cross section and is integrally provided with a substantially rectangular top plate 21A, side plates 21B at the longer sides of the top plate 21A and end plates 21C at the shorter ends of the top plate 21A. Pushing pieces 21D extend down from the inner surface of the top plate 21A for pushing unillustrated wires into an insulation-displacement terminal 23.
The housing 22 has a substantially rectangular main body 22A that faces the top plate 21A of the cover 21, and holding pieces 22B, 22C stand in two lines along the longitudinal direction of the main body 22A. Temporary holding portions 202 or holding spaces D1 are defined by adjacent holding pieces 22B, 22C for temporarily holding branch wires that are to be connected with the insulation-displacement terminal 23. The housing 22 also has two lines of projections that are parallel to and between the groups of holding pieces 22B, 22C.
The insulation-displacement terminal 23 is mounted between the two groups of projections on the housing 22. The insulation-displacement terminal 23 is made of an electrically conductive plate material and is designed for electrical connection with the branch wires. More particularly, the insulation-displacement terminal 23 cuts open the insulation coating of the branch wires and then holds the cores of the branch wires.
Presses are used to electrically connect wires of a wiring harness to the insulation-displacement joint connector 20. One such press apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2970273, which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention. The apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No 2970273 requires the housing 22 of the insulation-displacement joint connector 20 to be positioned on a connector table on a wiring harness assembling board. An insulation-displacement press is coupled detachably with the connector table and suspended for vertical movement. The cover 21 of the insulation-displacement joint connector 20 is mounted in the insulation-displacement press and pressed down to push the wires into the insulation-displacement terminal 23 for connection and to mount the cover 21 on the housing 22. However, this construction cannot be applied to insulation-displacement joint connectors with many contacts because the connection of the wires by insulation displacement and mounting of the cover 21 on the housing 22 are performed solely by a pressing force of the insulation-displacement press.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 11-039967 shows an apparatus for insulation-displacement joint connectors having many contacts. The apparatus requires a worker to operate a pushing press for pushing the wires mounted in the housing 22 into the insulation-displacement terminal 23 prior to pressing by the insulation-displacement press.
The above-described apparatus puts a large burden on the operator and causes poor operability due to the requirement for attaching and detaching the press for connecting the wires by insulation displacement followed by attaching and detaching the press for mounting the cover in order to connect one insulation-displacement joint connector.
In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide an insulation-displacement connector connecting apparatus and an efficient method to perform a connecting operation by insulation displacement and a cover mounting operation for insulation-displacement connectors having many contacts.